


New Old Friend

by everydayescapeartist



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: AU, F/M, everlark
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-01
Updated: 2013-04-01
Packaged: 2017-12-07 03:34:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,178
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/743724
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/everydayescapeartist/pseuds/everydayescapeartist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There’s just something about him as he sits there in the sand.  Katniss, Peeta, and friends in the Greek Isles.</p><p>Visual Prompt:  Europe</p>
            </blockquote>





	New Old Friend

His fair hair and skin stood out here and that, plus how off-key he was as he sat on the sand humming a tune whilst sketching in a notebook, is what caught Katniss Everdeen’s attention as she made her way past him toward her friends.

“Who’s that?” she asked as she swung herself from the dock onto her friend Finnick’s fishing boat.

“Who? Blondie?” he asked.

“Yeah.”

“It’s Delly’s cousin or something, here visiting for a while.”

“Hunh. I guess I can see the resemblance.” Except the new guy’s coloring looked more subtle, more natural. Delia (Delly for short) had hair that shone so gold it looked spun.

“Well, he’s either part of her family or yours,” Finnick teased, referring to her mother and sister, who, unlike Katniss, had pale skin and light locks. She resembled her father, who was from this island, with her dark hair, olive skin and grey eyes.

“He’s nice,” Annie chimed in. ”I saw him at the market earlier with Delly and he seemed friendly enough when she introduced us. I mentioned something about tonight but Delly had indicated they already had plans. Looks like Peeta’s gotten out of those plans or something though.”

“Peeta?” Katniss repeated.

“Oh! Yeah,” Annie said with a giggle, “that’s his name.”

Katniss just nodded, considering the sound of that.

“Well, there’s plenty of fish to go around. I had a good haul today. So, if you want to go invite him to join us, feel free,” Finnick offered, eyeing Katniss curiously.

She shrugged, looking out over the water a bit uncomfortably. She didn’t know what she wanted to do. For some reason, she felt drawn to the boy sitting in the sand. Something made her want to find out more about him. But she wasn’t usually the type to just approach guys, especially those she’d never met before.

“It’s true, Kat. I cleaned a ton of them, more than we need for the three of us and Gale and Jo, whenever they decide to grace us with their presence,” Annie confirmed.

“Why don’t you invite him? He’s already met you.”

Annie rolled her eyes at her and then paused for a moment, a slow smile creeping onto her face. “Doesn’t much matter. It’s not me he keeps sneaking peeks at up here.”

“What?” Katniss squeaked, caught off guard by that. “You’re imagining things, Annie.”

“Maybe. Maybe not. But I’m still helping Finn with our dinner, so I think you should make yourself useful and go invite the new guy.”

“Peeta.” Katniss cringed. For someone who was trying not to appear interested in getting to know Sir Blondie over there, she was appearing pretty darn interested.

Annie all but smirked. ”Yes…Peeta.”

‘Oh, what the hell?’ Katniss thought. It was only an invitation for a beach campfire dinner, with five other people to boot. Well, three maybe, if Gale and Jo couldn’t bring themselves to put their pants back on and join them. She sucked in some air, glanced his way quickly, surprised to see his eyes meet hers for a split second before dropping back to his notepad, and then gave her friends a defiant look. ”Fine.” She thought she heard them stifling laughter as she leapt back down onto the dock. Whatever. They didn’t have to be pains in the ass. This was just a friendly, welcoming gesture…not that she was usually either one of those things, which is likely what they found so funny.

She looked up and down the beach as she walked, trying not to look like she was zoning in on him, but as she neared him, she dropped any pretense of looking around for anyone else. He looked up with a tentative smile, curiosity lifting his golden eyebrows and widening his apparently sea blue eyes. She had to remind herself that she had approached him and force herself to speak.

“Uh, hi. You’re Peeta, right?”

Now, he definitely looked intrigued. ”Yeah. That’s me.”

She kicked lightly at the sand surrounding her feet, looking down at it briefly before meeting his eyes again and continuing. ”I’m Katniss. You met my friend Annie earlier at the market. We’ve known Delly for years.”

“Right. I…right.” He seemed like he had been going to say more but had stopped. She was probably freaking him out.

“I’m sorry. We probably shouldn’t have bothered you. It’s just…we’re gonna fire up some fish and have some other food and drinks and such. It’s kind of a birthday celebration thing but also just a thing we do some Friday nights.” Peeta was looking up at her expectantly and she realized she hadn’t said the most important thing. ”So, we were wondering if you’d, uh, if you’d like to join us. Delly too, of course, if she’s around,” she finished, looking around them for good measure but not spotting the Goldilocks of their island any more than she’d spotted her on her walk over to him.

When she turned her head back, it was to see him rising and dusting the sand from his shorts and shoving his small notebook and pencil into his pockets. She felt her eyes widen and her breath stutter though she inwardly berated herself for having such a reaction to his proximity. But he was closer to her now and it was now she who found herself looking up at him, not too far up but he did have a few inches on her.

“Whose birthday?”

“My friend, Jo. She turned 18 yesterday. It’s our ‘woohoo, we all made it to adulthood’ party.”

Peeta grinned. ”Well, lucky me. I’m in that club too.”

Katniss returned his smile. ”Good to hear. We wouldn’t want to corrupt any minors.”

“No? My brothers never took any issue with that,” he joked.

“Should I be worried?” Was she flirting with him? She felt little flutters within her stomach as he gave her a completely boyish smile and shrug of his shoulders.

“I don’t think so.”

“Okay, then. Come on. It looks like we’re setting up over here,” she said, pointing toward another spot of beach about 50 feet away where her friends were starting to lay out firewood.

“Are you sure your friend won’t mind having a stranger crash her birthday bash?”

Katniss shook her head with confidence. ”Nah. Jo’s always a fan of new friends,” she said with a smirk that he didn’t quite understand but kind of wanted to.

“Why do I sense that this Jo would be as keen on corruption as my brothers?”

She laughed and he felt his throat get momentarily dry. It was a hypnotic kind of sound.

“Because you catch on quickly, I guess. She’s definitely a fan of corruption.”

“Are you incorruptible? You know, to be able to hang out with her.”

“No.”

“Most folks aren’t.”

“My sister is.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah. She’s all manner of perfect. I’d kind of like to keep her that way too.”

“So, she won’t be celebrating Jo’s birthday too?”

“Nope. She’s only 14.”

“Ah.” They were almost to the spot where Finnick and Annie were laying things out. Before they reached them though, Peeta cleared his throat. “Thanks for the invite, by the way. I should have said that first.”

“Sure. No big deal. We have plenty of food.”

He nodded. “Well, this’ll be more fun than going back and listening to my aunt and uncle argue…or better yet, make up.” He made a face and Katniss burst out laughing.

“Um, yeah, should be better than that. Where’s Delly?”

“Oh, sorry. She had a date. Or if you see my aunt and uncle, she spent the evening showing me around.”

“Really? She just ditched you for a date?”

“Kind of. It’s not as bad as it sounds though. I love Del. We’ve been close since we were young. But she is…a bit much to handle for long periods of time. And we already spent the whole day together.”

Katniss wanted to ask more about what brought him here in the first place but they had arrived at the campfire set up and she took a minute to introduce Peeta to Finn and reacquaint him with Annie.

The guys got on quite well and Peeta helped Finn get the fire going and they started roasting their fish just about the time Gale and Jo decided to join them, looking a bit disheveled but relaxed and happy.

“Having a happy birthday, Jo?” Finnick teased.

“You betcha, Finnie. You and Annie wanna make it happier?”

“Nope. Still not sharing, Jo,” Annie replied, smiling but shaking her head matter-of-factly.

“Meanie. What about you, new guy? Are you a present for me?”

“Jo, don’t scare him off,” Annie admonished.

“I’m not that easily scared,” Peeta assured, “but I probably don’t qualify as present material either.”

“Bummer,” Jo responded with a laugh.

“Jo, this is Peeta,” Katniss introduced. ”Peeta, Jo. And isn’t Gale enough present for ya?”

“I most certainly am,” Gale put in cockily.

Jo just shrugged playfully and he grabbed her side, making her shriek from ticklishness. When he was done, he held out his hand to Peeta. ”I’m Gale, this wild one’s boyfriend, and I’m much obliged that you have no plans to offer yourself up to her with a big red bow on your…”

“Gale!” Katniss backhanded him in the chest but he just chuckled.

“I was going to say ‘head.’ S’pose you could take that in more than one way but geez, Catnip, get your head out of the gutter!”

Katniss looked like she wanted to sputter something back at her friend, who, to Peeta, looked like he could almost be her brother. They had the same dark features.

“I have no bows on me so I guess we can be friends,” Peeta responded with a chuckle.

“I guess so,” Gale said, grinning and then turning to teasingly suckle on his girlfriend’s neck.

“Aw, come on! Come up for air, you two,” Annie pleaded.

“Just because all you and Finn do is stare lovingly into each other’s eyes and write each other poetry doesn’t mean that does it for the rest of us,” Jo shot back, to which Annie just rolled her eyes. ”Besides, I’m the birthday girl. I get to be extra obnoxious tonight and you get to be extra nice to me anyway.”

“Fair enough, Jo,” Finnick agreed. ”But so you know, some of our poetry is pretty x-rated.”

“Finn, really! Not necessary,” Annie shushed him and he just grinned devilishly at her. The frown she was sending him didn’t last more than 20 seconds.

Katniss chanced a glance at Peeta. Her friends were crazy. Surely he was regretting his decision to come over with her already. When she looked at him though, he looked genuinely happy to be there and pretty amused. She was glad they weren’t scaring him off. There was still just something about him and she wanted to learn more…maybe a lot more.

* * *

 

A couple hours later, they had all eaten and had an appropriately celebratory bit of drink. Jo and Gale had slunk off to make out (and probably more) further down the beach near some large rocks overlooking the water. Finnick and Annie were cuddling up on the dock. This left Katniss and Peeta to finally get to talk some more on their own. They sat with a wine bottle between them, occasionally taking swigs from it as they talked, sitting close to the spot Peeta had inhabited before, looking out at the now dark sky and sea below.

“So, what are your plans here, Peeta? I mean, you said you were here for the family visit, but how long do you plan to stay?”

He looked thoughtful for a moment, breathing in the moist sea air. ”I don’t know, really. I turned 18 and I was pretty excited to get out of Doezen. And I always loved it here, so I thought this would be a good place to kind of figure out my next steps this summer. I could stay. My uncle could use help with the bakery. I could go to university in Athens or I could go back to the states. I don’t know. I’m accepted at a few places and I need to decide soon or defer or whatever. I just…needed a break.”

“I get it. I’m going to Athens in the fall. I’m excited and not. It’ll be weird. A new chapter. I’m just not sure if I’m ready to write it yet.”

“Yeah. Exactly. I am really glad to be here though. That’s cool that you’re going to Athens. You’d be a friendly face,” he said with a rather large smile.

“Maybe. I’m told it doesn’t usually look terribly friendly,” she joked.

“Well, it looks friendly enough right now. But when you were scowling at Gale earlier…yeah, not as good of a look for you,” he teased and she slapped his knee, feeling vaguely embarrassed by her familiarity but too far into the wine bottle to over think it too much.

“Hey…you said you _always_ loved it here…” She almost sounded accusatory, which was ridiculous.

“I did. I do.”

She was still screwing up her face at him in confusion. ”But I thought…”

“What? I’ve been here before Katniss. I’ve…we’ve met before…well, kind of.”

Katniss thought back to how he’d looked like he wanted to say something when she’d introduced herself earlier and wondered if that was it. Her eyes grew rounder at this new piece of knowledge. ”When?”

Peeta looked down at the sand in front of him, picking some up and letting it fall back through his parted fingers. ”We were younger. I came here to visit a few times when I was younger.”

This made sense, Katniss reasoned. He had family here same as she did. After all, she’d visited here a time or two before her father had gotten sick and they’d moved here to be closer to his family for the time he had left. Sometimes she missed the states still, but most of the time she just thought of this as home now. It wasn’t an uncommon situation here. A fair number of folks were transplants from the U.S., Great Britain or elsewhere. Either they had family here or they visited and decided they never wanted to leave. The Greek Isles had a way of enchanting folks like that. It’s how she had met and made friends with Finnick, Annie, Jo, and Gale. None of them were natives, so they related to each other in ways they didn’t quite relate to some of their other friends and family here.

Seeing her try to work it out in her head, Peeta decided to help her out. ”We were eleven probably,” he said a bit somberly. ”We were visiting with my aunt and uncle and we’d…well, we’d attended your father’s funeral.”

“Oh,” Katniss said, a pang of sadness sliding through her gut at the mention. She was so much more healed now than she’d been then but she still missed her father, knew she always would. He’d been taken from their family far too soon.

“It wasn’t that day, exactly. I mean, I saw you then, of course. But it was a few days after. You were sitting up by the cemetery, up near that cliff,” Peeta explained, pointing, but Katniss didn’t really need to follow the direction of his arm. She knew where her father’s resting place was. ”You were…really sad…of course. Your mother had walked away from you crying and I heard her tell my aunt that you were refusing to eat and she was worried about you.”

She remembered doing this, remembered the frustration and sadness in her mother’s eyes. Thankfully, they’d come a long way from that day.

“Anyway, I…well, I wanted to help. So, I took some of the cookies from the bakery and put them in a bag. I’d helped powder the kourambiethes myself that morning.”

Recognition was starting to wash over her. She remembered a quiet boy with lighter hair than her own and blue eyes sitting down beside her, opening a paper bag and handing her cookies. He’d said nice things, nice things about her father and family and her dress. She didn’t know him and she’d felt too numb to try to know him but eventually, as she’d just stared straight ahead out at the water, she’d accepted one cookie and nibbled at it for a long time. He’d sat with her in silence for a long time and had handed her a second and eventually a third. Someone had called for him, yelled really, and he’d fumbled back into a standing position and turned to go. The woman really didn’t sound very happy that he was sitting up there with her. She couldn’t be bothered to care but from some recess in her mind, she hoped he wouldn’t get in too much trouble on her account. ”Thank you,” she’d managed quietly and he’d placed his hand against the back of her shoulder for the briefest of moments and then he was gone. She’d never really gotten a good look at him through the fog of her sadness and her tear-blurred vision.

“That was you? You got me to eat those cookies?” she asked, staring at him incredulously.

He nodded slowly, offering her a hint of a sweet smile.

“I…thank you,” she said sincerely, this time holding his eyes the way she hadn’t years ago. ”I appreciated that…so much. You didn’t really demand anything of me. You just let me be…quiet…but still not feel alone. It’s why I trusted you enough to accept the cookies…and why I felt just enough hope to eat them.”

“Hope?” Peeta asked softly.

“Yeah,” Katniss nodded. ”That if there was this kind of kindness around me, maybe I could get through the worst time in my life. If I could just be and you could still stand to sit next to me, that maybe one day I’d want company like that again. That maybe…” She stopped. She’d never shared this with anyone before. She’d thought about that boy for years but by the time she had come back to herself more, worked through her grief more, she had no idea who he was and she hadn’t really seen him again that she could recall.

“Maybe what?”

She looked at him a bit sheepishly. ”Well, I thought at the time that maybe my father had sent you…sent me a friend or an angel or something…because you were just so…kind.”

“I’m glad I could be there for you, Katniss.”

“Me too.”

She had held his stare for quite a while before she took a breath and looked out at the lapping waves and then up at the night sky, stars sprinkled across it haphazardly.

“So," she began, feeling a heartening amount of hope right then and there, “do your more immediate plans include powdering some cookies for a new old friend?”


End file.
